Tara Wilson

Kensuke Yamada

Artist Bios

Crista Ann Ames

Crista Ann Ames is a sculptor working primarily in ceramics and textiles. Through the layering of mythology, iconography and personal narrative, Crista explores how our own animal nature relates to the ways we establish and sustain personal relationships. Raised on a small hobby farm in Washington State, Crista often draws on her own experiences to explore pastoral life, animal husbandry, women’s craft and fertility.
Crista attended Washington State University where she obtained her BFA in Ceramics with a minor in Art History. She attended Utah State University for Post Baccalaureate studies in Ceramics, and completed the MFA program at the University of Montana. She began a long-term residency at the Clay Studio of Missoula upon the completion of a summer residency at the Archie Bray Foundation in October 2015.

Dudley Anderson

As a youngster, Dudley Anderson was regularly exposed to and inspired by commercial art while assisting his step-father. Even then, he was often directed by his art instructors to explain his “out of the box” creations. He began his journey with ceramics in 1969 at the Ketterer Art Center in Bozeman, MT. In the 80’s his ceramic work was displayed in the Missoula Art Museum and, consequently, he received invitations to enter works in shows in other states. In more recent years, his interests led him to use exotic woods, leather, resins, and brass to create art, golf putters, and knives. At present, he is creating highly textured vessels by utilizing drying methods while throwing on the potter’s wheel with a stick and only one hand and often firing with the Raku method.

Adrian Arleo

Adrian Arleo is a ceramic sculptor living outside Missoula, Montana. She studied Art and Anthropology at Pitzer College (B.A. 1983) and received her M.F.A. in ceramics from Rhode Island School of Design in 1986. Arleo was an Artist in Residence at Oregon College of Art and Craft in 1986-87, and at Sitka Center For Art and Ecology in 1987-88. For nearly thirty years, Arleo has focused her work on the human figure, often combining it with animal imagery, and other elements of the natural world. Some works allude to a relationship of understanding or connection between the human and animal realms. In others, human figures possess animal features in a way that reveals something hidden about the character or primal nature of the human.

Andrew Avakian

Andrew received a BFA in ceramics from Western Carolina University, and spent two years studying ceramics at the University of Florida as a post baccalaureate. He has been a resident artist at Cub Creek Foundation for the Ceramic Arts, and at Odyssey Clayworks. In 2015 he moved to Missoula and was the gallery assistant at the Clay Studio of Missoula through summer 2016, and is currently a long-term artist-in-residence.

James Bailey

James Bailey was born in New Jersey, and grew up in Minneapolis, MN. He earned his M.F.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is currently an artist and Professor in the School of Art at The University of Montana. In 1998 he established Matrix Press and runs the Annual Day of the Dead Steamroller Print Project. James has exhibited his work nationally and internationally in over 300 exhibitions nationally and internationally. His work can be found in numerous collections including those of the Walker Art Center, New York Public Library, Jundt Art Museum among others. He was also included in the documentary film titled Midwest Matrix and he serves on the board for the Printmaking Legacy Project.

Doug Baldwin

Doug Baldwin received his BA (1961) and MA (1965) from the University of Montana. He also studied at the Brooklyn Museum Art School. From 1969 to 2004 he taught at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore. His work has been exhibited internationally. Doug works as a Studio Artist at the Clay Studio of Missoula, and has developed a body of his work into short movies.

Jennifer Bardsley

Jennifer Bardsley is a professional artist from Missoula, Montana, USA. She specializes in oil, watercolor paintings video installation and sculpture. Her subject matter includes wildlife, landscapes, still-life, flowers, figures, western scenes and abstract art work. Jennifer has her BFA in painting from The University of Montana. She has exhibited her artwork across the US and abroad in Finland and New Zealand. Jennifer is currently the Art Teacher at Sussex School in Missoula.

Courtney Blazon

Courtney Blazon is an artist and illustrator living and working in Missoula, MT. She is a graduate from Parsons School of Design, where she received her BFA in Illustration. She's shown in Missoula at the Brink Gallery and the UC Gallery, and outside of Montana, her work has been shown in Seattle, Portland, New York, Philadelphia, and San Francisco. Her work has been featured in New American Paintings (Western Edition), Studio Visit Magazine, and juxtapoz.com. She received a Montana Arts Council Artists Innovation Award in 2011. She is represented by Radius Gallery in Missoula, MT.

Renée Brown

Growing up in Conyers, Georgia, Renée Brown spent many summer days playing in the creek bed next to her home. Clay has always been under her nails. After a brief encounter with the ceramics program at the University of Georgia, she pursued her studies in interior design and experienced an ambitious early career as a commercial and residential designer. Unable to resist the call of clay, she began taking night classes in ceramics at an urban community clay center. At age 29, Renée left the design field to pursue her MFA in Ceramics at the University of North Texas. Upon receiving her degree, she completed several artist residencies in Montana including: The Archie Bray Foundation, Red Lodge Clay Center, and The Clay Studio of Missoula. Renée was recognized as one of NCECA’s 2014 emerging artists. She now maintains an independent studio in the Historic Brunswick Building in downtown Missoula, Montana.

Isobel Buck

Isobel Buck is a graphic designer and illustrator living in and originally from Missoula. She spent many years in Colorado where she worked as a graphic designer and taught graphic design for Pikes Peak Community College in Colorado Springs. Before that, she received her B.A. in Art from the University of Montana in 1996. Her digital art stems from her traditional media sketches and studies of nature - Flowers, weeds, trees, bugs and animals - particularly rabbits. She loves to paint in watercolors and oils. Her digital work is implemented mainly through the tool of Adobe Illustrator, and always with the help of a graphics tablet.

Susan Carlson

Susan is a local Missoula artist who is a member, student and studio artist at the Clay Studio of Missoula. She attended Gonzaga University and the University of Montana where she earned a BFA. Most recently she joined the board of the Clay Studio of Missoula representing the Studio Artists who rent and share space at the Clay Studio of Missoula.

Pamela Caughey

Pamela Caughey grew up in Wisconsin, where she received her Bachelor of Science degree in Biochemistry from UW-Madison in 1983. After moving with her family to Hamilton, MT in 1986, she began her serious study of art, and in 2010 received her MFA in Painting and Drawing from the University of Montana School of Art. She works in many media, with special interest in cold wax/oil, encaustic, mixed media and acrylic. Her work is in the permanent collection of several museums and public buildings nationally and internationally and her work appears in the newly published book by Rebecca Crowell and Jerry McLaughlin, “Cold Wax Medium: Techniques, Concepts, Conversations”. After teaching foundations courses at the University of Montana, Bitterroot College, Montana, she is now a full-time studio artist and teaches workshops from her Hamilton, Montana studio and around the country.

Eva Champagne

Eva Champagne grew up in Hong Kong. She received her B.A. in Studio Art from Humboldt State University and completed Post-Baccalaureate study at the University of Florida. In 2009 she earned her M.F.A. from the University of Montana-Missoula. Since then, she has been a resident artist at AIR Vallauris in France, Guldagergaard International Ceramic Research Center in Denmark, Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts in Maine, Red Lodge Clay Center and The Clay Studio of Missoula in Montana, and Gaya Ceramic Art Center in Bali, Indonesia. Her work is shown nationally and internationally, and is included in several permanent collections. Currently she maintains a studio practice in Florence, MT

Lisa Clague

Lisa Clague is an internationally known sculptor. She received her BFA from the Cleveland Institute of Art and her MFA from California College of Arts and Crafts. She has been the recipient of the North Carolina Arts Council Fellowship and the Virginia Groot Foundation Grant in 1999 and 2011. Clague's work has been exhibited at the Macon Museum of Art, Georgia; The DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Massachusetts; The John Elder Gallery, New York and The Udinotti Museum of Figurative Art, Arizona. She participated in the 3rd World Ceramic Biennale, Trans Ceramic Art in Korea and currently resides in North Carolina.

Chris Drobnock

Chris Drobnock began his ceramics studies at Juniata College (PA). He received his BFA with a dual concentration in Ceramics and
Printmaking at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania and has worked as both a Studio/Lab Technician and an independent studio potter and sculptor in Pennsylvania. Chris recently completed his MFA at University of Arkansas, Fayetteville and is an artist-in-residence at the Clay Studio of Missoula.

Nancy Erickson

Nancy lives in a mountain canyon near Missoula, Montana with Ron, her partner of many years and with the deer, cougars, and bears who have lived in the canyon for centuries. She has been making fabric constructions, quilts, paintings and drawings since the 1960's.

Donna Flanery

Donna Flanery received a MFA from the University of Florida, 2013. She received her BFA in 2005 from the University of Montana and an AA from The College of Southern Idaho in 2003. Between academic endeavors she has been a resident artist at The Archie Bray Foundation, The Clay Studio of Missoula, The Northern Clay Center, and The Pottery Workshop, Shanghai, and The Zentrum, Berlin. She is currently the studio manager at the Clay Studio of Missoula.

Emily Free Wilson

Emily Free Wilson is a ceramic artist and entrepreneur in Helena, Montana. She currently runs her pottery business Free Ceramics and the Studio Art Center, with her husband Matt Wilson. In 2014, Emily and Matt purchased an old funeral home and have converted into an art center that is home for Free Ceramics and hosts community events, art classes and private studios. Emily recently retired from 10 years as the gallery director at the Archie Bray Foundation.

Stephanie J. Frostad

Stephanie J. Frostad studied at Studio Arts Center International in Florence, Italy, The Maryland Institute, College of Art (BFA 1990), and The University of Montana (MFA 1994). Frostad has exhibited throughout the Northwest, in California, Maryland, Washington D.C. and abroad in Canada, China, Italy and New Zealand. In 1994 she was awarded a Montana Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship. Her work is held in numerous private and public collections including University of Victoria, Montana Museum of Arts and Culture, and University of Washington Medical Center. Born and raised in Walla Walla, Washington, Frostad now lives in Missoula, Montana.

Julia Galloway

Julia Galloway has exhibited across the United States and Canada, and she has demonstrated at the NCECA and the Utilitarian Clay Conferences. Her work can be found in the collections of the Long Beach Museum of Art in CA, the Renwick Gallery and the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, DC, the Huntington Museum of Art in WV, the Archie Bray Foundation in MT, and the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. For nine years Galloway taught at the School for American Crafts at RIT. She currently lives in Missoula, where she is a Professor of Ceramics at the School of Art at the University of Montana.

Mo Gary

Gardening and art are her passions. Thirty years ago she started growing vegetables, making pottery and weaving baskets. Dirt, clay and plants consumed her as they kept her in the natural world. Mo has to have flowers with her always. Wood firing clay drives her wild. Mo’s work is diverse, organic, intricate and personal. She can’t keep her hands off of it. It speaks of growth and bloom.

Ron Geibel

Ron Geibel grew up in Butler, Pennsylvania. In 2013, he received his MFA from the University of Montana. Geibel has been a long-term artist resident at the Clay Art Center in Port Chester, NY as well as a short-term resident at the Red Lodge Clay Center and The Chautauqua Institution's School of Art. Ceramics Monthly Magazine recognized Geibel as a 2015 emerging artist. Currently, he is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Art at Southwestern University in Georgetown, TX. His work explores the intersections of public vs. private. By creating objects that reference the private parts of people’s lives, the work confronts matters concerning, sexuality, gender and identity. Geibel brings these issues out of the dark by inciting the voyeuristic tendencies of his audience.

Bev Beck Glueckert

Bev Beck Glueckert lives and works in Missoula, Montana. Her work has been widely exhibited throughout Montana and the Northwest region, as well as nationally. She has been an art instructor and workshop facilitator for adults and children for nearly 30 years. Bev has served as adjunct faculty in drawing and printmaking at The University of Montana and The University of Great Falls. She is a member of the SALTMINE artists group. She holds a BA degree from the University of Idaho and a MFA degree in printmaking from the University of Montana.

Stephen Glueckert

Stephen Glueckert was born in Missoula, MT and received a BFA from the University of Idaho and an M.Ed in Art Education from Western Washington University. He has taught at The University of Montana, the University of Papua New Guinea, and throughout the Pacific Northwest. He spent ten years at the Northwest Children’s Home as a counselor and teacher. He has been a recipient of a Montana Individual Artist’s Fellowship. He is Curator Emeritus for Missoula Art Museum. In addition being a practicing artist, he has written extensively about contemporary artists living and working in Montana.

Mel Griffin

In 2001, Mel received a BA in Studio Art from Carleton College in Northfield, MN. During this time she focused on drawing and painting, so in order to learn about ceramics, she completed a two year apprenticeship with Doug Browe and Jan Hoyman in Ukiah, CA. Mel earned an MFA came from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities in 2011. The following year, she taught ceramics at the College of St. Benedict at St. Johns University in Collegeville, MN. Residencies include Millersville University in Pennsylvania, Medalta International in Medicine Hat, Alberta, and the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, MT. Mel has received a number of awards for her work, including the LEAP Award from the Society for Contemporary Craft in Pittsburgh, PA in 2011, and the Emerging Artists Award, from the National Council for Education and the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) in 2014.

Miriam Griffin

Miriam Griffin was born in Knoxville, Tennessee and holds a BFA degree from the University of Montana, Missoula. She has an Associate’s Degree from Bard College at Simon’s Rock, and has also studied at the University of Tennessee, Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, and Women’s Studio Workshop. She has received several scholarships to attend workshops at Penland School of Crafts, has been a resident at Medalta (Medicine Hat, Alberta, CA), and was awarded a summer work-study position at Watershed (ME) in 2014. She was a long-term resident at the Clay Studio of Missoula from 2014-16.

Holly Grob

Holly Grob grew up in the dualistic environments of Orlando, Florida and Billings, Montana. Immersed in the contrast of these two environments and cultures, Grob can’t help but be thoughtful about the physical and mental structures that we as humans create in which to live our lives. Elements that make up the Places that we choose to call home and work, and places that are foreign to us when we visit somewhere new.
Grob received a BFA from MSU Billings in 2016. She was a community Resident at the Clay Studio of Missoula in October 2016 and currently resides in Missoula.

Perry Haas

Perry has been working in ceramics since 2003. He holds a BFA in ceramics from Utah State University. Ceramics has taken him to China and Korea, where he spent his time studying their unique ceramics history and processes. His work consists of functional wood fired ceramics. From 2011-2013, Perry was the long term Woodfire Resident at the Clay Studio of Missoula, then was a resident at Red Lodge Clay Center from 2013-2015. He is currently a long-term artist-in-residence at the Archie Bray Foundation.

Kristi Hager

Kristi Hager lives in Missoula and has worked as a self-employed photographer and multi-disciplinary artist in Montana since 1984.
Hager received a BA in Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In 2003, Hager received a Gottlieb Foundation Individual Support Grant based on twenty years’ artistic achievement. She received the Montana Arts Council Artist’s Innovation Award in 2010.
Hager’s paintings were included the Missoula Art Museum’s Montana Triennial, 2009 and 2016, celebrating contemporary Montana art.

Koral Halperin

Spending the first half of his life in the United States Virgin Islands and the latter half in Chicago and New York, Koral's work tends to reveal observations of the natural and manmade worlds. Koral received his AFA, Associates of Fine Arts at College of Dupage (IL), a BFA at Southern Illinois University, and was a Post Baccalaureate Student at Kansas State University. Koral first came to Montana as an artist-in-residence at Red Lodge Clay Center, and recently finished a long-term residency at the Clay Studio of Missoula.

Matt Hamon

Matt Hamon hails from a small, remote town in Northern California. A sense of place informed by wandering the woods as a child inspires his enquiry. Self-described as 'post-rural', Matt’s creative endeavors take many forms, as he is un-prejudiced in his choice of media, embracing anything from drawing and painting to photography and video. His work can involve a single medium or a combination of several disparate techniques. The technique that is adopted simply needs to be the best method to represent a particular idea.

Candice Haster

Candice Haster was born in Kansas City, Missouri. She studied art at the University of Montana, spent four years as a Teaching Artist in Residence in New York, NY, and developed arts, literacy, and garden-based programming for youth in Providence, RI and Portland, OR. Works include clay, printmaking, felt, installation, performance and often a special invitation for audience participation and play. Current projects: installations of tiny, porcelain architecture and the intersection of paper and clay.

Jakob Haßlacher

Jakob is the Founding Direktor, current CEO & President of the Bored Direktors of the LH Project in Joseph Oregon. The LH is a non-profit residency program catering to Artists who imbibe in the Ceramic Arts.
"Folks are always asking me what does 'LH' stand for! Well, for this potsketch I thought it would be great to share all of the different definitions we have heard over the years... technically the Brand came from my family's cattle ranch in Colorado and is currently listed as 'L hanging H' in Oregon's livestock registry."

James Heath

Originally from Butte, MT, James Heath has lived in Missoula since 1982. He graduated from The University of Montana, Missoula, in 2013, with a BFA specializing in ceramics. His passionate relationship with clay began in 1999, at the Clay Studio of Missoula. James' involvement in the ceramic arts has grown with the Clay Studio. He has served on the Clay Studio Board of Directors since 2005 and is currently the president.

James Heath's first undergraduate degree was in Chemical Engineering and he spent 28 years working in industry. His reflections on chemical processes are often incorporated into his work

Trey Hill

Trey Hill is an Assistant Professor of Ceramics at the University of Montana. In addition to teaching, Trey has traveled and worked at many different residencies, including two years as a Taunt Fellow at the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts in Helena, MT, and at the LH Project in Joseph, OR. His international experienced includes time spent in Latvia building a public commission and also China, where he created work at the Fu Le International Ceramic Art Museum in Fuping.

David Hiltner

David Hiltner is currently the Executive Director of Red Lodge Clay Center in Red Lodge, Montana. In the summer of 2005 David and his family moved to Montana to establish the Red Lodge Clay Center. Prior to moving to Red Lodge, David was an Assistant Professor of Ceramics at Wichita State University in Wichita, Kansas. Before joining the faculty at Wichita State University in 1999, he taught at Syracuse University, Northwest College and at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. He received his B.F.A. in Ceramics from Wichita State University in 1993 and completed his M.F.A. at Syracuse University in 1997.

Maggy Rozycki Hiltner

Maggy Rozycki Hiltner scours antique shops and yard sales for old embroidery. Inspired by the images of animated vegetables and all too cute oversized puppies and kittens, she combines this found embroidery with her own to depict sweet, strange and sometimes unsettling stories. Her images at first appear whimsical or vibrantly happy but on closer inspection are not quite so. Sometimes it's a malicious undertone to the relationships, or a lack of self-control on the part of the characters, or maybe an otherworldlyness hidden in the everyday.

Maggy grew up in suburban Pennsylvania. After serving as her high school mascot, Rowdy Ram, she went on to earn a degree in sculpture from Syracuse University. She and her husband, David, moved to Red Lodge in 2005 to open the Red Lodge Clay Center. They live/garden/make stuff/play with their two young daughters, a dog, two guinea pigs, four chickens and several goldfish.

Kirk Jackson

Kirk Jackson discovered clay while studying at The Ohio State University. While pursuing his BFA, Kirk had the opportunity to spend a semester in Jingdezhen, China. After completing his BFA, he worked as Studio Manager at Watershed, participated in the Working Artist Program at Longwood University, and was a Resident Artist as well as instructor at Seward Park Clay Studio (WA). Prior to coming to the Clay Studio of Missoula, Kirk was a long-term resident at the Red Lodge Clay Center (2014-2016).

Sarah Justice

Sarah was raised in North Carolina. She has primarily been a self-taught, working studio artist since 1998. Oil painting was her main medium until she attended Georgia State University to receive her BFA with a concentration in Ceramics and graduated in May of 2014. Sarah is currently in the MFA program at The University of Montana.

Ann Karp

Ann Karp's sketching desk is rarely without a mug of hot tea. Her paintings have been shown at the Zootown Arts Community Center, Le Petit Outre, and the University Center at the University of Montana. Her decorative window art and hand-lettering work can be seen on the storefronts of dozens of locally-owned shops throughout Missoula, and at www.sidewaysgaze.com

Barb Schwarz Karst

Barb Schwarz Karst is a contemporary painter who is best known for her series, Montana Rust Belt, which focuses on abstract close ups of the machines used centuries ago during the country’s early labor development. These vibrant paintings hone in on and capture intimate views, those which stem from the vintage, muscular, industrial scenes scattered throughout America.
She has twice received a fellowship and mentorship through The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and holds graduate and undergraduate degrees in Art/Art Education. Her works have been featured in worldwide and domestic exhibitions and published in several books and magazines.

Alex Kraft

Originally from Tucson, Arizona, Alex Kraft received her BFA in ceramics and her BS in art education from Northern Arizona University in 2002. Since completing her MFA in 2006 from the University of Montana, she has exhibited nationally and internationally and participated in numerous artist-in-residence programs including at the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, Montana, Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, Clay Studio of Missoula, Roswell Artist in Residence Program, Kiln God resident at Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts, and Red Lodge Clay Center. She is a practicing studio artist and teaches at University of North Georgia, Dahlonega, GA.

STEVEN KRUTEK

Steven Krutek studied art at the Colorado College, the University of Montana, the SALT Institute for Documentary Field Studies, Pacific Northwest College of Art, and with photographer Stuart Klipper. Steven is currently teaching in the University of Montana's School of Art and at the Missoula Art Museum (MAM) while promoting his photography-based and photographically derived artwork. Recently, his work was chosen as the cover image for a collection of poems, Earth Again by Chris Dombrowski and for publication in The Sun Magazine.
When he isn't teaching, creating his own work, or spending time with his family, Steven studies and performs Balinese music with the Missoula community gamelan, Manik Harum.

Joshua Kuensting

Joshua Kuensting was born in the middle of Middle America. He earned his MFA in Ceramics from Utah State University. He was a Resident Artist at the Clay Studio of Missoula in Montana, a Core Fellow at Penland School of Craft in North Carolina and holds a BA in Psychology from the University of Missouri-Columbia. He has exhibited his work in numerous national shows. He recently was the Studio Lab Coordinator at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina, and is currently an artist-in-residence at The Clay Studio of Missoula.

Mike Kurz

After completing his MFA at The University of Montana in 1998, Mike was fortunate to be invited by Clare Ann and Rob to get the Clay Studio of Missoula up and running. Early on he taught a few adult classes and helped organize the shop. As the years went by, he was involved in countless roles, from bookkeeper and clay mixer, to exhibition curator and board president. Mike taught classes and ordered materials, mopped floors and hosted residents. Not all fun, but ALWAYS rewarding; to participate in an organization that brings joy and a sense of community to so many people.

When asked about the studio's ongoing success, he said, "I'm gratified to see our function expanding; that we’ve maintained relevance."

Ladypajama

Ladypajama is an artist, writer, lover of life. She is a self-taught artist who believes that the act of creating is more important than the products produced from creating. Using art to grow, emote, and meditate are essential in her life.
Ladypajama publishes a monthly zine that she sends out via the mail. She likes to think of this zine as a memoir in real time. She is also an avid journaler. And is constantly making art. When asked what kind of art she makes she usually responds, “flat art.” She mostly creates two-dimensional art. Mixing paint, pencils, pens, and collage materials, she often builds scenes with awkward looking people and mutated animals.
Always interesting and always changing ladypajama’s art hopes to inspire and interest all who view it.

Beth Lo

Beth Lo was born on October 11, 1949 in Lafayette, Indiana, to parents who had recently emigrated from China. Much of Beth’s ceramic and mixed media artwork draws from themes of childhood, family, Asian culture and language. She received a Bachelor of General Studies from the University of Michigan in 1971, and then studied Ceramics with Rudy Autio at the University of Montana receiving her MFA in 1974. She assumed his job as Professor of Ceramics there when he retired in 1985, and has been twice honored with the University of Montana Provost’s Distinguished Lecturer Award, 2006 and 2010. Beth Lo has exhibited her work internationally and is in a number of collections. She has received numerous honors including the United States Artists Hoi Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts Visual Artist Fellowship Grant, a Montana Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship, and an American Craft Museum Design Award. She is also an active musician and children’s book author.

Kiahsuang Lo

Kiahsuang was born in Shanghai in 1919 and grew up in a middle class family of nine children in Hangzhou, China. Kiahsuang met her husband when she moved to Kunming. In the 1940s, the couple immigrated to the US to escape political unrest in China to pursue their education. The two settled in Indiana, where they raised Ginnie and Beth. Kiahsuang lost touch with her parents after the war but the calligraphy skills her father taught her during her childhood remained with her.

Philip Mahn

Philip Mahn was born and raised in Great Falls and currently lives in Florence. His development as a potter has been through independent study, mentoring, and a variety of community ceramic studios like the Paris Gibson Square, The Clay Studio of Missoula, University of Montana, and the Archie Bray Foundation. His work is a collaboration of the intuitive interaction with clay and the embracement of the firing processes that make it uniquely ceramic.

Cathryn Mallory

Cathryn Mallory is currently a Professor and Director of the Gallery of Visual Arts for the School of Art at The University of Montana-Missoula. Originally from the Chicago area, she received her BFA in fiber from Northern Illinois University in DeKalb and MFA in sculpture from the University of Oklahoma in Norman. Her work has been exhibited on a regional and national level.

George Metropoulos McCauley

George Metropoulos McCauley, a Greek/American potter, has taught and conducted workshops internationally. The recipient of three National Endowment for the Arts grants and the prestigious Roy Acuff Chair of Excellence for the Arts at Austin Peay State University in Clarkesville, TN, his pottery and sculpture are included in international collections in 11 countries and has been shown worldwide in countless exhibitions. He maintains a studio at his home in Helena, Montana where he makes colorful earthenware pots and narrative sculpture. Along the way he has worked as a chef in a Greek restaurant, horse trainer, fulltime cowboy, concrete inspector, aluminum siding salesman, western catalog model, lifeguard and carpenter.

Sarah McNutt

Buffalo, New York native Sarah McNutt received her Bachelors in Ceramic Design and Art Education from Buffalo State College before pursuing her MFA at Kansas State University under Amy Santoferraro. She often explores topics of psychology, senses, and perception of space in her work, but enjoys forays into the many tangents of clay. McNutt is an active artist, teacher, and writer for publications such as Ceramics Monthly, Ceramics:Technical and Ceramics Art & Perception. Currently she lives in the Bay Area and is Ceramics Art Faculty at the Community School of Music and Art.

Jack Metcalf

Jack Metcalf spent his youth knee deep in the sweating swamps of the southeast smearing the line of where illusion ends and reality begins. His creations emulate a diary of sorts. The work balances draftsman precision with an ambiguous blather of imagination, insight, and delight, presenting an internal conversation that is felt, but never fully comprehended. The work is playful, visually stimulating, and when tied to the stories behind each piece, also deeply personal. It may have humor, but it’s not to be taken lightly. Jack has recently establish his studio and art space Real Good, a rather fabulous venue just a stone’s throw away from the Clay Studio of Missoula

Ron Meyers

Ron Meyers is an emeritus professor of the University of Georgia, Athens, GA where he taught for over 20 years. He received his BS and MS degrees in Art Education from the State University College at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY and received his MFA degree in Ceramics from the School for American Craftsmen, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY. Ron's work is represented in many museum and private collections. He was a 2007 recipient of the NCECA Excellence in Teaching Award. He has also been honored by the Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis, MN as the 2008 Regis Masters Series Honor. The Regis Masters Series pays tribute to senior artists that have had a major impact on the development of 20th and 21st ceramics in the United States.

Leslie Van Stavern Millar II

Leslie Van Stavern Millar II is an independent artist living and working in Western Montana since 1972. She is a graduate of Mount Holyoke College.
Leslie shows in regional and national museums and galleries. Her art is represented in numerous collections, including the Federal Reserve Bank of Northwest U.S., the Montana Museum of Art and Culture, the Jundt Art Museum and the Missoula Art Museum. Leslie is the recipient of several Montana Arts Council Grants, fellowships to the V. C.C. A., and exhibition awards. Most recently Leslie received a PROP Grant to publish a limited edition art book, The First Queen Elizabeth Time-Travels to Montana.

Andrea Moon

Andrea Moon grew up in Northwest Ohio and began making in clay at a production pottery company, Packer Creek Pottery. She attended college at Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio receiving her BFA in 3-Dimensional Studies. In 2009 Andrea completed her MFA in Ceramics and a secondary in Sculpture at Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas. Among teaching classes at various institutions, participating in national workshops and exhibitions, Andrea has completed a year long Artist-In-Residence at the Arrowmont School of Art and Craft (2011) and the Red Lodge Clay Center (2012). She was the Residency and Communications Coordinator at Red Lodge Clay Center from 2012-2016. Recently, Andrea’s work was featured in a two-person exhibition at the Missoula Art Museum.

Priscilla Mouritzen

Priscilla was born in Cape Town, South Africa. She studied at the School of Art, Durban, South Africa. In 1979 she moved to Denmark where she serves on the board of directors for Guldagergaard, International Ceramic Research Center, and maintains a studio north of Copenhagen.

Priscilla’s work has been shown at the Museum of Anthropology, Xalapa, Mexico, 20+1 Tozan Kilns, Arizona Presenters Exhibition, and The Clay Studio of Missoula, where she had a solo exhibition in 2006. Most of Priscilla’s work is pinched in porcelain clay and wood fired. The scale is intimate, as demanded by the pinching process. The works show a use of pattern that echoes memories of her childhood in Africa.

Courtney Murphy

Courtney Murphy began working in clay while living in Brooklyn, NY. After several years of working for potters around the city, she moved to Portland, OR and received a post-baccalaureate in ceramics from the Oregon College of Art and Craft. Courtney moved to Montana in the summer of 2009 for a ceramic residency at the Archie Bray Foundation. She was a resident at the Clay Studio of Missoula from 2012-2014, and currently serves on the board of directors.

Richard Notkin

A studio artist who lives in Vaughn, Washington, Richard Notkin’s teapots and ceramic sculptures have been exhibited internationally and are in more than 65 public collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and the Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park, Japan. Among his awards are three artist fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, and grants from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation. In 2008, Notkin was elected a Fellow of the American Craft Council, and awarded a Hoi Fellowship by the United States Artists Foundation. He is also the recipient of the Meloy Stevenson Award from the Archie Bray Foundation, Helena, MT, and the Honorary Membership Award from NCECA, National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts.

Kathleen Herlihy-Paoli

Kathleen Herlihy-Paoli is a painter who lives and works in Missoula. She has shown work recently at Gallery 409 with the Salt Mine artists and has had work selected for several juried groups shows at the Radius Gallery in Missoula, as well as juried shows in galleries in PA, NY, CT and MT. She graduated from Skidmore College in upstate NY with a degree in Fine Arts, and has also studied at Pratt University and Pratt Manhattan Center.

Josh Quick

Josh Quick is a prolific illustrator and has created works for many notable clients including Submittable, Doma Coffee Roasting, Big Dipper Ice Cream and Pearl Jam. Josh is also a front end developer and user-interface designer at a software company that creates biology learning modules for universities around the world.

Jazmine Raymond

Jazmine is the Outreach Coordinator at The Clay Studio of Missoula. She likes to make things. She likes to talk about making things. She wants you to like making things. She has a BFA in visual arts from Bennington College in Vermont. She’s from Missoula Montana.

David Regan

Montana-based ceramist David Regan began working professionally in 1991 and has quickly became well recognized for his distinctive vessels. Regan’s porcelain animal forms, covered in intricate sgraffito drawings, invite close observation. Although they appear to be decorative and sculptural, many of them are actually entirely functional and this is part of their complexity. Addressing themes of human and animal consumption and the natural cycles of life and death through his illustrations, Regan links these ideas to the function of traditional serving containers like soup tureens and casseroles. He is currently the ceramics instructor at Flathead Valley Community College.

Alison Reintjes

Alison Reintjes first moved to Montana in 2001 for a residency at the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena. She has completed additional residencies at Greenwich House Pottery in New York, Jentel in Wyoming, Mount St. Francis in southern Indiana, and the Clay Studio of Missoula. She has exhibited at the Oregon College of Arts & Crafts, AKAR Gallery, Museu de Ceramica de l'Alcora in Spain, ASU Ceramic Research Center, Lill Street Art Center and the Northern Clay Center.

Brandon Reintjes

Brandon Reintjes has concentrated most aspects of his life on creating art and celebrating art made by others. Though he works as Senior Curator at the Missoula Art Museum, he maintains a regular studio practice. He received his undergraduate degree in painting and drawing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and his MA in curatorial and critical studies from the University of Louisville.

Steven Schaeffer

Steven Schaeffer was born in Harrisburg Pennsylvania in 1969. Steven began his education in art at an early age, studying with masters in the field of ceramics in Philadelphia, PA and achieving his Masters in Fine Arts at Ohio University. Steven’s work has been exhibited in more than seventy exhibitions nationally and internationally and is in permanent collections across the United States and the Jingdezen Ceramic Institute in China. He currently teaches ceramics as Assistant Professor of Practice in the College of Arts and Letters at Northern Arizona University.
His love for the four corners of the southwest United States is a major influence in his work. “Understanding my environment is an essential motivation for my creative process. Nature is the didactic arena that I seek. Through my studio work I have realized what these experiences are consciously revealing to me.”
Most recently Steven’s work was part of two separate exhibitions Full Bloom and Clay: Time, Place, Memory at the Phoenix International Airport Museum.

David Scott Smith

David Scott Smith is originally from Spokane, WA. He has lived for extended periods of time in Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Louisiana. He received his MFA from Louisiana State University and worked for several years at Southern Louisiana University and Flathead Valley Community College teaching ceramics and 3-D design. He currently teaches ceramics at University of Arkansas at Little Rock

David has been featured numerous times in Ceramics Monthly magazine, including the article David Scott Smith: A Bricolage of Light.

Richard Smith

Richard Smith is a ceramic artist exploring the aesthetic of wood fired sculpture. He has degrees in Physical Therapy and Anatomy, and has recently been exploring human figurative forms.
Richard’s preferred process utilizes high temperature porcelain and stoneware clay, shorter duration firings in efficient wood fired kilns, atmospheric limitation of oxygen, and burying of work in coals during firing, leading to edgy possibilities in this medium.
Richard has shown his work at local galleries, and serves on the Board of Directors of the Clay Studio.
This amphora featured in this year’s Potsketch live auction was fired to Cone 12, in the arch of his train kiln, in February 2017.

Kevin Snipes

Kevin Snipes was born in Philadelphia, but grew up mostly in Cleveland, Ohio. He received a B.F.A. in ceramics and drawing from the Cleveland Institute of Art in 1994. After leaving grad school at the University of Florida in 2003 Kevin has led a seemingly nomadic artistic life, constantly making no matter where he is.
Kevin has participated in several artist residency programs, including the Clay Studio, in Philadelphia and Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts, in New Castle, Maine and received a Taunt Fellowship from the Archie Bray Foundation in Montana 2008. Exhibiting both nationally and internationally, including a recent solo exhibition at the Society of Arts and Craft, Boston; Akar, Iowa City and Duane Reed Gallery in St. Louis. Kevin has exhibited as far away as Jingdezhen, China. Kevin combines his love of constructing unconventional pottery with an obsessive need to draw on everything that he produces, creating a uniquely dynamic body of work. He currently resides in Pittsburgh, PA.

Chad Steve

Chad Steve received a BFA in Ceramic from University of Wisconsin-Stout (2008). He received a MFA in ceramics from the University of Hawaii at Manoa (2012). Chad has exhibited his work in China and throughout the United States including Workhouse Gallery, Lorton Virginia; Pottery Northwest, Seattle; Honolulu Museum of Art, Hawaii, and the Muse Gallery, Colorado. He has been an artist in resident at The Clay Studio of Missoula Montana and is currently an artist in resident at the Armory Art Center in West Palm Beach Florida.

Lee Stuurmans

Lee Stuurmans has dropped out of college at least three times and on more than one occasion has tried to impress interviewers by listing the many types of fruit he is familiar with, knowing full well he’d actually only seen less than half of the produce he had purportedly tried. It may go without saying that shame and guilt are among the oldest and most familiar of Lee’s bedfellows, indeed nary a night goes by where he isn’t visited by one or both. In lieu of any actual accomplishments, Lee prefers to cloak his background in a shroud of elaborate fantasies.

MONICA THOMPSON

Monica Thompson lives and works in Missoula, Montana. She studied Textiles and Graphic Design at the University of Michigan and studied Fibers at the Penland School of Crafts in Penland, North Carolina. Her work strives for simplicity in design and purity in process. Monica teaches Elementary Art in the Missoula County Public Schools.

Patricia Thornton

Art is the instrument through which Patricia’s ideas, life stories, and observations take form. She works with a wide range of two-dimensional media, including installation, painting, drawing, printmaking, collage and photography depending on the needs of the piece. Her approach to making art is process based, experimental, and playful. Patricia is currently the Zootown Art Center’s Adult Program Director & Printshop Manager, and maintains Thornton Studios with her husband Tim.

Tim T. Thornton

Tim T. Thornton was born and raised in Los Angeles California. He began drawing at an early age. In grade school and in high school, his teachers encouraged him to pursue his artistic interests, and in 1984 he graduated from the California College of the Arts with a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Art with an emphasis on drawing. After leaving art school, he found full time employment as a scene painter in Hollywood, painting sets for film, television and theater. Tim was later hired by the University of California at Berkeley as the charge scenic artist for the Performing Arts program. In 2005 he relocated to Montana with his artist wife, Patricia, where they have made a home in the supportive and lively community that is Missoula. His large scale paintings are in several local collections, and have been featured in the Missoula Art Museum’s annual auction.

Bobby Tilton

Bobby Tilton was born in Great Falls, Montana and raised on a cattle and wheat ranch in the little Belt Mountains. Her mother was a Home Economics and English Major and her father was a fisheries biologist. Her siblings and she were taught about ecology long before it became a popular concept. Bobby’s interest in art began with her ability to draw as a second grader and was honed over the years by many gifted and caring teacher. She began her career as a full time kindergarten teacher and taught art K-12 for nine years in Missoula public schools. She has a Masters in Administration and an MFA in Sculpture. She is a retired professor from the School of Art at the University of Montana.

Sue Tirrell

Sue Tirrell received a BFA from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University in 1997. She has been a resident artist at the Archie Bray Foundation, California State University, Chico, and the Custer County Art & Heritage Center in Miles City, MT. Her work is included in the public collections of the Yellowstone Art Museum, the Archie Bray Foundation, the Custer County Art & Heritage Center, the Montana Museum of Art & Culture, and the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art in Overland Park, KS. Tirrell’s work has been included in regional and national juried and invitational exhibitions and she is represented by Visions West Galleries, Livingston & Bozeman, Stewart-Kummer Gallery, Toucan Gallery, Red Lodge Clay Center, and ArtFusion. She lives and works on the banks of the Yellowstone River near Livingston, MT.

Maria Tritico

Maria Tritico is a Jeweler, Art Instructor and Art Therapist in West Palm Beach, Florida. She received her BFA from Texas State University in Photography and in Studio Art with an emphasis in Metals/Jewelry before receiving her Masters of Art in Art Therapy at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. During her years working in arts education and art therapy, Maria has worked in a variety of settings which span age ranges 3- 101 years of age and population types from assisted living/skilled nursing care, to youth camps to incarceration. Maria is on the Board of Sa Voix-Haiti, a secular non-profit that empowers young women transitioning out of orphan care through mentoring and skills training.

Shalene Valenzuela

Shalene Valenzuela was born and raised in Santa Barbara, California. She received a BA in Art Practice at the University of California at Berkeley and an MFA in Ceramics from California College of Arts and Crafts. She has participated in artist residencies at the Archie Bray Foundation, The Clay Studio of Missoula, Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts, and the LH Project. She has taught at Flathead Valley Community College, University of Montana, Oregon College of Art and Craft, and various art centers in Montana and California.
Shalene has been a guest artist and speaker at a number of art centers, colleges, and universities and her work has been featured in several group and solo exhibitions nationally. She currently serves as the executive director at the Clay Studio of Missoula and received an Artist's Innovation Award in Ceramics from the Montana Arts Council in 2013.

Kurt Weiser

Kurt Weiser was born in 1950 in Lansing Michigan. He studied ceramics under Ken Ferguson at the Kansas City Art Institute from 1972-76 and then completed an MFA at the University of Michigan. In 1988, after a stint as Director of the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, MT, Weiser started teaching ceramics at Arizona State University, where he has held the position of Regents' Professor of Art since August 2000. His work has been acquired by many institutions around the world, including the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American Art, the National Museum of History in Taiwan, the Museum of Contemporary Ceramic Art and Institute of Ceramics, Shigaraki, Japan, the Los Angeles County Art Museum, and the Carnegie Mellon University.

Janet Whaley

Janet's images on her hand-painted porcelain works depict personal and traditional mythologies – both the realms of the imagined and not imagined. She explores the subjects of aging, birth and rebirth, and relationships, blending her own personal experiences with myths and fairy tales and images from nature. Born in Idaho and raised in Missoula, Janet started her art studies at the University of Montana in 1966. After a time, she switched gears and began a twenty-six year career in nursing. During this time, she continued her art studies and finished my MFA in ceramics from the University of Montana in 1996, and now maintains her studio practice in her Missoula home.

Tara Wilson

Tara Wilson is a studio potter living in Montana City, Montana. Wilson received a BFA from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in 2000 and an MFA degree from the University of Florida in 2003. She has been a resident artist at The Archie Bray Foundation and The Red Lodge Clay Center. Wilson was selected as an emerging artist for the 2006 NCECA conference. She has given lectures and workshops throughout the United States and her work has been exhibited internationally.

Kensuke Yamada

Kensuke Yamada is a Japanese born maker, educated in the US at Evergreen State College, Olympia, WA and at the University of Montana receiving his MFA in 2009. Since then, he has been a Resident Artist at the Archie Bray Foundation, Helena, MT, Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts, Watershed, ME, Oregon College of Arts and Crafts, Portland, OR, Clay Studio Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, and a guest artist/adjunct instructor at the Tyler School of Art, Temple University, Philadelphia PA. Kensuke is now a visiting artist/Ceramics Studio Technician/ Adjunct faculty member at University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR. Yamada is a sculptor that creates layered narratives within his figurative works.

Casey Zablocki

Casey Zablocki was born and raised in the Upper Peninsula. He received his BFA from Finlandia University and studied ceramic design in Kuopio, Finland. He spent one year working and studying as an apprentice to Peter Callas and as a special student at Montana State. He has showed in both national and international exhibitions. Casey was the Woodfire resident at the Clay Studio of Missoula from 2013-2015. He recently returned to Missoula after a three-month long internship in Korea with designer Hun-Chung Lee.

HOW POTSKETCH WORKS:

Bid Online

You are able to bid online by calling or emailing us with your name, contact information (email, phone number, and address) and the piece(s) you wish to bid on. Please state both your starting bid AND the maximum bid you wish to place. We will only increase your bid if you have been outbid by someone else and will halt at your maximum bid.

NOTE: Potsketches can only be bid up in increments of $10 or greater

We will assign you an unique proxy number and confirm your information.

Proxy Bids: By using a proxy, the Clay Studio of Missoula can confidentially bid for you up to the maximum price you set. This way you don't have to keep an eye on your auction as it unfolds. Be assured that we will only use as much of your maximum bid as is necessary to maintain your position as high bidder. If your bid prevails, the final price might even be less than your maximum! E-mail and phoned-in proxy bids will be accepted through 4:30pm MDT, Friday, April 22, 2016.

Proxy bids may be accepted for Live Auction works as well. Keep in mind live auction works generally start bidding at half the estimated value.

Contact the office to make arrangements once you have decided the maximum you are willing to pay by calling (406) 543-0509 or emailing info@theclaystudioofmissoula.org. Please feel free to call our office if you have any questions or problems.

PICK-UP OR DELIVERY OF ACQUISITIONS. For those unable to attend the closing celebration, artwork will be available for pickup or shipment after April 25, 2016. Those requesting shipment will have to make arrangements with the studio. It will be shipped via Fed Ex with insurance up to the selling value. The buyer will be responsible for shipping and handling.

Bid in Person

The minimum bid for all POTSKETCHES is $50 and increases in increments of $10 or greater. We use assigned proxy numbers to identify bidders. Emailed/phoned-in bidding will be conducted until April 22 at 4:45 pm, and continues again at the auction event.

POTSKETCH history

In 2004, Jayson Lawfer (former Clay Studio Executive Director) designed and created POTSKETCH. It was conceived as a fundraiser to further develop and expand The Clay Studio of Missoulaís facilities. Jayson, Mike Kurz (Clay Studio Board President), and the rest of the Board of Directors wanted to incorporate local, national and international artists in a unique fundraiser. Because most artists draw, the idea to invite artists to take 10 seconds, 10 minutes, or 10 hours to draw a pot or an image that has had an impact on them seemed novel. To facilitate this, The Clay Studio board and staff selected a group of artists and sent out packages including a 5"x5" piece of Italian paper, a pencil, and a return mailer and asked the artists to donate an original work. By including the materials with the invitation it was the Studios intention to make it easy for these artists, but they also encouraged them to manipulate the material and use any medium they were comfortable with including ink, paint, wax, etc.

Well, the results were outstanding. Within a matter of days, the first drawings began arriving - Warren MacKenzie, then Akio Takamori, and the list of artists who participated kept going. The generosity and companionship from artists around the world was deeply felt. In its first fundraising year, The Clay Studio of Missoula was able to auction these drawings and raise $11,000. Now, in our ninth year, the artists' work has arrived with remarkable presence. This year's artists include past participants as well as many new submissions, and have arrived from America, Canada, Denmark and Germany.